Saturday, July 31, 2010

PIC OF THE OLD FARMHOUSE ON OUR PROPERTY...IT IS 100 YEARS OLD...OUR CARETAKER/HORSE TRAINER LIVES HERE...

Friday, July 30, 2010

IF YOU BELIEVE IN THIS...PASS IT ON...

Andy Rooney and Prayer Andy Rooney says:

I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don't agree with Darwin , but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his Theory of Evolution.

Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game. So what's the big deal? It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire Book of Acts. They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the game. But it's a Christian prayer, some will argue.

Yes, and this is the United States of America and Canada , countries founded on Christian principles. According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you expect -- somebody chanting Hare Krishna?

If I went to a football game in Jerusalem , I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer.

If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad , I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer.

If I went to a ping pong match in China , I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha.

And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit.

When in Rome .....

But what about the atheists? Is another argument.

What about them? Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We're not going to pass the collection plate. Just humour us for 30 seconds. If that's asking too much, bring a Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer!

Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world's foundations.

Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep. Our Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying.

God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you, well, just sue me.

The silent majority has been silent too long. It's time we tell that one or two who scream loud enough to be heard that the vast majority doesn't care what they want. It is time that the majority rules! It's time we tell them, "You don't have to pray; you don't have to say the Pledge of Allegiance; you don't have to believe in God or attend services that honour Him. That is your right, and we will honour your right; but by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights away. We are fighting back, and we WILL WIN!"

God bless us one and all...Especially those who denounce Him, God bless America and Canada , despite all our faults, We are still the greatest nations of all. God bless our service men who are fighting to protect our right to pray and worship God.

Let's make 2010 the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back as the foundation of our families and institutions. And our military forces come home from all the wars.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Amid explosive Church growth, African bishops meet

“The Church in Africa is growing very fast,” Accra Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle told Vatican Radio. “It needs to be able to welcome this growth, accept the challenges thereof form ,our lay men and women so they can take up their places as salt of the earth light of the world, form our young men and women who may want to enter into the priesthood and religious life so they can offer their service to the Church here and elsewhere in the world. Form our Catholic elite in our Catholic universities to be able to take up their roles in the socio-political spheres of society. These are the challenges that we are very happy to take up!”

The explosive growth of the Church in Africa began over a century ago and has accelerated in the past three decades. In 1900, there were 2 million Catholics in Africa; today, there are over 165 million-- triple the 1978 figure of 55 million. 14% of Catholics worldwide now live there, nearly half of the children in Catholic elementary schools study there, and 43% of the world’s adult baptisms-- over a million a year-- take place there. There are more Catholic hospitals in Africa than there are in North and Central America combined.

Between 1998 and 2007, the number of priests increased from 26,026 to 34,658, while the number of women religious grew by over 10,000, from 51,304 to 61,886. Over 14 million African children attend Catholic elementary schools, while another 3.7 million attend Catholic high schools. Since 1978, the number of African seminarians has more than quadrupled from 5,636 to 24,034, and Africa is now the world’s second most vocation-rich continent, bested only by Asia.

This grass is a vertical, clump forming masterpiece.Both leaves and flowers stand strictly upright.Sways gently in the slightest breeze.Feather Reed Grass is often used around water gardens and in naturalized areas that tend to flood on occasion.It also looks striking in my container gardens.Indoors you can create a colourful arrangement in a vase with feather reed and rosestems and rosehips.Flowering occurs in June and July with a compact, upright, narrow, white to reddish-white inflorescence. In the autumn the flowers change to a buff color and are retained throughout the winter...making it striking all winter. The plant is tolerant of a wide range of growing conditions from sun to light shade. This plant is an asset to a short growing season because it starts to grow early in the spring and blooms early.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

NAME YOUR 3 FAVOURITE PRAYERS MEME...

Breadgirl has tagged me for a Catholic meme. I LUV MEMES...YOU MIGHT CALL ME A MEME JUNKIE.I HAVE SO MANY FAVOURITE PRAYERS...I'LL HAVE TO TRY AND WIDDLE THEM DOWN...The rules, which need to be posted: "Name your three most favorite prayers, and explain why they're your favorites. Then tag five bloggers - give them a link, and then go and tell them they have been tagged. Finally, tell the person who tagged you that you've completed the meme. The Liturgy and the Sacraments are off limits here. I'm more interested in people's favorite devotional prayers."

My three favourite prayers are:

THE LITANY OF HUMILITY...I SAY IT EVERY DAY AFTER MASS...ALONG WITH THE PRAYER TO ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL.

This prayer was written by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val (1865-1930), the secretary of state for Pope Saint Pius X. It is a very good daily prayer, especially when recited in front of a crucifix so that we can recall the humility of Christ.He was accustomed to saying it every day after Mass also.

Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, O Jesus.From the desire of being loved,From the desire of being extolled,From the desire of being honored,From the desire of being praised,From the desire of being preferred to others,From the desire of being consulted,From the desire of being approved,

From the fear of being humiliated, deliver me, O Jesus.From the fear of being despised,From the fear of suffering rebukes,From the fear of being calumniated,From the fear of being forgotten,From the fear of being ridiculed,From the fear of being wronged,From the fear of being suspected,

That others may be loved more than I, O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.That others may be esteemed more than I,That, in the opinion of the world, others may, increase and I may decrease,That others may be chosen and I set aside,That others may be praised and I unnoticed,That others may be preferred to me in everything,That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, O Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

MY 2ND FAVOURITE IS ACTUALLY A NOVENA ...TO THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE SEVEN GIFTS.IT IS SO POWERFUL...To be prayed between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost...BUT I PRAY IT MORE.

The novena in honor of the Holy Spirit is the oldest of all novenas since it was first made at the direction of Our Lord Himself when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. It is still the only novena officially prescribed by the Church. Addressed to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, it is a powerful plea for the light and strength and love so sorely needed by every Christian.GO HERE for this prayer.

I HAVE TO SAY MY NEXT FAVOURITE IS EVERY CHILD'S FAVOUITE...PRAYER TO OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL...BECAUSE I DON'T THINK WE ARE AWARE ENOUGH OF THIS POWERFUL BEING BY OUR SIDE,AND I TRY TO CONSTANTLY REMEMBER THAT.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

FARRAH CHECKING OUT OUR WILDFLOWER GARDENS...

If you could choose only one food, it's this...Nothing nutritionally comes close to quinoa.

Not everyone can pronounce quinoa (it's keen-wah), and even among those who can, many are asking: is it a seed, a grain, a fruit? But that hasn't stopped it from blasting into mainstream popularity, going far beyond its former status as a hippie food that vegans ate for its high protein count. People say there are super-foods out there but I have a hard time seeing anything with a nutritional profile like quinoa. It's got everything from fatty essential acids, protein [as much as milk], complex carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals. Nothing comes close to quinoa."

NASA is considering using quinoa for its in-space program.If someone put a gun to your head and said, 'You can only eat one food for the rest of your life,' and you had one second to choose a food that would keep you strong and healthy for the rest of your life, you'd be miles ahead of anybody if you picked quinoa."

Friday, July 9, 2010

TODAY WE LOST OUR FRIEND,OUR BUD,OUR COMPANION...FLAXEN...A WHITE GOLDEN RETRIEVER...BRED IN SCOTLAND.HE LIVED 17 FUN-FILLED YEARS AT KNIGHTSWOOD FARM AND HAD A SWEET TEMPERAMENT.

God turns clouds inside out to make fluffy beds for the dogs in Dog Heaven, and when they are tired from running and barking and eating ham-sandwich biscuits, the dogs find a cloud bed for sleeping. God watches over each one of them. And there are no bad dreams.

Authentic Human Freedom cannot be realized in decisions made against God and against the Natural Law. Authentic freedom has a moral constitution. It must be exercised in reference to the truth concerning the human person, the family, our obligations in solidarity to one another and the common good. That is why the fullness of authentic human freedom is ultimately found in a relationship with the God who is its source and who alone can set us free to choose rightly.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

CHANNEL-SURFING LAST NITE...ON CNN(ugh channel),THEY WERE ACTUALLY INTERVIEWING THE HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHARITIES IN LOUISIANA RE THE INCIDENCE OF MENTAL ILLNESS SINCE THE OIL DISASTER.AMAZED THE SECULARISTS WOULD GIVE THE CATHOLICS ANY KIND OF MARQUIS.WILL WONDERS CEASE.

---------------------------------------------

THIS IS HOW I TRY TO LIVE...EPICUREAN LIKE THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ARCHAIC GREECE.

The Desert Fathers were Hermits, Ascetics and Monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt, beginning around the third century CE. They were the first Christian hermits, who abandoned the cities of the pagan world to live in solitude. These original desert hermits were Christians fleeing the chaos and persecution of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century. They were men who did not believe in letting themselves be passively guided and ruled by a decadent state.(DECADENT STATE...SOUND FAMILIAR ???) Christians were often scapegoated during these times of unrest, and near the end of the century, the Diocletianic Persecution was more severe and systematic. In Egypt, refugee communities formed at the edges of population centers, far enough away to be safe from Imperial scrutiny.

------------------------------------------"Believing Christians should look upon themselves as such a creative minority and ... espouse once again the best of its heritage, thereby being at the service of humankind at large." --Joseph Ratzinger

Monday, July 5, 2010

SO I WATCHED G.K. CHESTERTON,APOSTLE OF COMMON SENSE ON EWTN...ONE OF MY CAN'T MISS SHOWS.IT WAS ABOUT OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM...WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT CAN BE SUMMARIZED IN 3 WORDS...DARWIN,MARX,FREUD.TRY AND CATCH THAT SHOW.

I ALSO CAUGHT THE LAST HALF HOUR OF THE FIREWORKS CONCERT ON THE HUDSON...IT'S DELIGHTFUL HOW MANY INSPIRATIONAL GOD-FEARING SONGS/HYMNS WERE SUNG AND LOVED...I GUESS THE SECULO-ATHESISTS WERE CHOMPING AT THE BIT.MAKES ME WONDER WHEN GOD BLESS AMERICA WILL BE BANNED FROM SPORTING EVENTS.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

What is a relic?

A relic is a body or body part of a saint or an object that is associated with a saint.

There are three classes of relics: the first is the body or body part of a saint; the second is a piece of clothing or something used by a saint; and a third-class relic is an item that has been touched to a first-class relic.

Relics have had a long and meaningful role in the history of the Catholic Church because a saint or holy person is seen as an instrument of God, making that person’s remains worthy of reverence. Relics, however, are not items to be worshipped or idolized. They are, in the words of St. Jerome, an early Church Father, venerated “in order to better adore Him whose martyrs they are.”

Today relics continue to serve as visual reminders of a grace-filled life of that individual, which in turn inspire and encourage others to live lives of virtue.

Pope praises life of 13th-century pontiff who quit

SULMONA, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI has traveled to a central Italian town to pay homage to Celestine V, the 13th-century hermit pontiff who resigned, saying he was not up to the task.

Benedict urged the faithful Sunday to learn from Celestine's sober and simple life. He praised Celestine for his detachment from material things such as money and clothes.

Benedict said that "we, too, who live in an epoch of greater comfort and possibilities, are called upon to appreciate a sober lifestyle."

During his daylong visit, Benedict also sought to encourage the faithful still suffering from the April 2009 earthquake in this region. The pope had visited the area soon after the quake, praying before the salvaged remains of Celestine.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

I HAVE NEVER HEARD A POPE USE THE PHRASE...THE LAST DAYS...POPE BENEDICT DID IT HERE...

Today (reported June 29) in Rome, on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI gave a remarkable homily in which he mentions the threats that will come against the Church in the "last days." This homily must be read in part as Benedict's commentary on the sexual abuse crisis and the increasing pressure being placed on the Church by secular judicial and law enforcement authorities.

~Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to understand my man; Love to forgive him; And Patience for his moods. Because, Lord, if I pray for Strength, I'll beat him to death. AMEN~

Yesterday was the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, apostles of the beginnings of the Church -- one to the Jews, the other to the nations. But the times remind one of a man who took the name "Celestine" when he became Pope, a name never chosen again...

"I resign the papacy out of the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of my own physical strength, my ignorance, the perverseness of the people, my longing for the tranquility of my former life." --Pope St. Celestine V (1209-1296), also known as Pietro da Marrone, the only Pope in history to resign the papacy, giving the reasons for his resignation on December 13, 1294 after only five months as Pope. He lived another year and a half, kept in prison by his successor, Boniface VIII.

"I saw and recognized the shade of him who by his cowardice made the great refusal" --Dante, Inferno, III, 59–60; many scholars believe Dante is referring to Celestine V, placing him in Hell because Dante felt Celestine had acted in a cowardly way by resigning rather than facing and fighting the forces of evil in the Church)

A Mystery in Plain Sight

Today (reported June 29) in Rome, on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI gave a remarkable homily in which he mentions the threats that will come against the Church in the "last days." This homily must be read in part as Benedict's commentary on the sexual abuse crisis and the increasing pressure being placed on the Church by secular judicial and law enforcement authorities.

The homily thus provides a deep insight into Benedict's mind at this troubled moment in his pontificate.

The feast in Rome on June 29 each year is the feast in which the Pope places the "pallium," a cloth made of wool, upon the shoulders of archbishops from around the world chosen during the past year as a sign that they are "linked" or "yoked" to the universal Church, to Rome, and to the person of the Pope.

In his homily, the Pope speaks of the "liberty of the Church" and says this liberty is protected by the strength of the union between the bishops around the world and the bishop of Rome, the Pope.A little more than a year ago, on April 29, 2009, Benedict did something unusual. He left his own "pallium," the sign of his episcopal authority and his connection to Christ, on a tomb in Aquila, Italy. The tomb held the remains of a relatively obscure medieval Pope named was Celestine V (1209-1296).

Why?

The Pope now wears a pallium designed by Monsignor Guido Marini, a cross between the short pallium with black crosses worn by Metropolitan Archbishops and the longer ones with red crosses. This resembles the pallium worn by the the figure of Celestine in his shrine which is a short pallium with black crosses over an elaborate Roman chasuble.

Celestine was a holy monk. His model was John the Baptist. His wore hair-cloth and a chain of iron. He fasted every day except Sunday and each year he kept four Lents on bread and water alone. Many kindred spirits gathered about him eager to imitate his rule of life, and before his death there were 36 monasteries, numbering 600 religious, bearing his papal name (Celestini).

But he was not just a monk.

He was elected Pope in 1294, a time of great corruption and contention in the Church, after a conclave deadlocked for more than two years. He was elected at about the age of 80 (Benedict was 78 when he was elected Pope in 2005).

At Celestine's election, some of the Spiritual Franciscans, who opposed the worldliness of the Church hierarchy, proclaimed that he was the first legitimate Pope in nearly 1,000 years, since Constantine had granted the Church huge territorial possessions in the 300s.

So the Church had a holy leader, and many devout Catholics at that time thought the Church would be reformed by this good man.

But the holy Celestine -- who pleaded with the cardinals not to choose him as the Pope -- could not manage to rule the powerful cardinals around him.

The cardinals of 700 years ago seem to have chosen Celestine almost humorously, as it were, not seriously, as if to say, "We can't agree on a serious 'Prince-Cardinal' for Pope, so we will choose this holy, quiet, learned monk to be Pope, and watch with a certain amusement as he struggles mightily but in vain to guide the ungovernable bark of Peter."

After five months, Celestine gave up, and resigned -- the only Pope who has ever done so.

He thought he would end his life in peace, but his successor, Boniface VIII, fearing his opponents might use Celestine as a rallying point, ordered him confined, and some allege (probably wrongly, since he was already approaching 90), executed.

All of Celestine's official acts were annulled by Boniface.

Now, Benedict is scheduled to travel this Sunday, on July 4, to Sulmona, not far from Rome. There, in the crypt of the cathedral, as the last act of his visit, he is scheduled to venerate relics of this same holy Pope, Celestine V.

So Sunday, the Pope will pray before Celestine's relics for the second time in 15 months.

I am not suggesting Pope Benedict XVI is thinking of following in the footsteps of the saintly Pope Celestine and resigning.

I am suggesting that the studious Pope Benedict and the studious monk-Pope are "connected" in a mysterious way.

I believe Benedict's decisions to leave his pallium in Aquila, where Celestine's tomb is located, and to schedule a prayer before his relics this coming Sunday, are not haphazard.

These decisions are indicators, ways of communicating truths through gestures. They contain a message the Pope cannot deliver any other way.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

HAPPY CANADA DAY...WHAT WILL THIS COUNTRY LOOK LIKE IN 47 YEARS...READ THIS BY Margaret Wente...

Immigration, old age and technology to rule Wente's Canada 47 years from now Margaret Wente describes what Canada will be like in 47 years, as the country’s national age rises and its population becomes more dependent on immigration

Forty-seven years ago, when my family arrived in Canada, I could never have imagined what kind of country we'd grow up to become. Toronto was a boring backwater. Almost everyone was beige. Nobody drank wine or ate foreign food. Everything was shut on Sunday, because you were supposed to be in church. The Royal York was the tallest building in the city. Dief was the chief, the flag looked British, and nobody had heard of Leonard Cohen or Joni Mitchell yet.

What will Canada be like 47 years from now? Let me imagine.

No one was surprised when Shibani Pushparajah became prime minister. The brilliant second-generation immigrant, who was born in Mississauga, belongs to Canada's second-largest ethnic group. But really, she's a citizen of the world. The last white male prime minister lost his seat in 2043. The only white man in Ms. Pushparajah's diverse cabinet is the minister of agriculture.

Since the turn of the millennium, all of our population growth has come through immigration, mostly from China, India and the Philippines. In the thriving megalopolis of Greater Toronto (population: 12 million), people of European descent make up less than a third of the population. The biggest culture gap isn't between competing ethnic and linguistic groups, though. It's between the vibrant, globally minded, multiracial cities and the shrinking white ghettos of the Atlantic provinces and the rural hinterland.

Canada's population has swelled to 44 million. But immigration hasn't reversed the aging trend. Although the national IQ is high, so is the national age. A third of all Canadians are over 65. But “retirement,” as they used to call it, is long gone. There weren't enough workers to support the retirees. Today, you can't get old-age benefits until you're 75 or 80. That's really not that old. Breakthroughs in biomedicine have yielded cures for many of the old degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, and the average natural life expectancy is pushing 100.

Even so, health-care costs are ruinous, and taxes are sky-high. Like other cash-strapped Western nations, Canada wants to cut people off medicare when they turn 90. Instead, it will offer you a lavish farewell party at a time of your choosing, along with a generous endowment for your descendants and a delicious cocktail to put you to sleep forever.

Some of the old folks remember when the neighourhoods were full of kids. They're much more quiet now. For every person under 16, there are two people over 65. Instead of schools, governments are building group homes for geezers. One thing hasn't changed, though. Caregivers from the Philippines are as popular as ever. Only now, their dependent, diapered charges are at the other end of life.

Compared to Europe, Canada is lucky. Italy is so depopulated that the entire nation has been declared a vast theme park. Most Canadians can't afford to go there any more. Admission is restricted to the very wealthy – mostly Asians – who are happy to fork over the $10,000-a-day entrance fee. (All sums in post-Euro, pre-crash USD.) Instead, we flood to bargain-basement Central America, where huge colonies of elderly North Americans prop up the economies of entire nations.

Today, it's hard to imagine how powerful Quebec's French-Canadians used to be in national life. Demographics and immigration did them in. The separatist party collapsed in 2025, after its supporters literally died out. French-speaking immigrants from Africa and Haiti didn't care about the old battles, and with the end of transfer payments, Quebec lost its leverage on Ottawa for good. Today Quebeckers make up less than 20 per cent of the Canadian population, and live in the poorest province of them all. But they still have the best places to eat.

After the Great Crash of 2024, when China finally stopped buying U.S. debt, Canada endured its darkest decade since the Depression. We're still scarred by the memory of 18 per cent unemployment and the great pension fund collapse. Fortunately, our once-reviled oil sands saved our bacon. We leased them to China for 199 years at highly attractive rates, and that, along with a bonanza of new discoveries in the North, has made us nearly as rich as the Norwegians. We are happy the world is finally weaning itself off oil, but please, not yet.

Nostalgia buffs think everything was better in the good old days, of course. They love to sit around and listen to old Joni Mitchell tunes and show off their souvenir copy of the last Globe and Mail printed on dead trees. Their grandkids can't imagine a time when The Globe did not exist entirely in cyberspace. Everyone agrees the world has changed a lot in 47 years. But one thing hasn't changed at all. Canada is still the best country in the world.

You are free to decide where and with whom you stand. You do not, however, have the right to try to change the Catholic Church to suit your opinions or wishes. No matter how brilliant you are, you are not above the Magisterium. No matter how persuasive the political position, you cannot ignore the law of the Church and the Natural Law. Doctrine and Orthodoxy may be distasteful words in this age of personal freedoms, but if you call yourself Catholic, you need to know what Catholic doctrine actually says and follow it.